Just morbid curiosity. I’ve had neighbors whose cat escaped before. And now I hear stray cats meowing in the middle of the night, screaming and fighting with other cats, and I just got curious… what if one of them is my neighbor’s cat? 🤔 (hopefully not)
I mean, I would think that cats who get regulary fed should have a better chance? But then, they never had a fight before so they would never have experience…
Like, I imagine this scenario is equvalent of a human getting lost and then there is a homeless person who wants to fight you (not that they would, just an example). I think a person who’ve had proper food is gonna win against a homeless person. So with this logic, the indoor cat should win against the stray/feral cat? Am I right?
I’d lean more towards the stray.
Our fatass tuxie ran out the front door on a whim one night to go have an adventure. He never goes out at night.
Came back 20 minutes later with one of his claws bleeding. It appears as though he got spooked by something and tried to run up a tree but forgot to retract his claws well enough.
Depends on the cat. Strays fight on the regular so they’re probably pretty good at it. On the other hand one of my entirely-indoor-from-birth cat routinely wrestles with a 100lb dog for fun and takes no shit, so I’d give him fair odds. The other is a big lazy puddle who doesn’t stand a chance.
My “indoor” cat brings me dinner every day including crows and other animals from the woods nearby. She also fights constantly with our much older next neighbours cat. She might get fed every day, but she hunts and fights for fun.
Sounds like she’s not really an indoor cat, so not a fair comparison?
That cat is as indoor as I am a plant
scenario is equvalent of a human getting lost and then there is a homeless person who wants to fight you (not that they would, just an example). I think a person who’ve had proper food
You should consider one of them fights every day, and needs to survive all the fights every day, and actually has survived every fight so far - and the other one never…
however the other likely has a material advantage…
In humans, this would rather add to the disadvantage.
depends on how malnourished the homeless person is, and whether the nonhomeless was really into punk or similar spikey clothes.
A couple that lived near me had a little thai cat, a sweet of an animal. They would let the cat out daily.
At some point, they just decided to leave the country and abandoned the cat.
The creature became the neighbourhood boss. Killed several males in fights, some even larger, fought off dogs, became a ferouscious hunter and never agaim entered a house.
That cat was king of the street for three years until one of his own blood dethrowned him.
Damn, this sounds so badass and yet so sad at the same time.
I don’t know how someone could abandon a cat.
Like I could never abandon a pet that I claimed. Once I made the claim, that’s mine forever.
Unfortunately, stupid heartless people are a dime a dozen.
I would find it hard to make a general judgement here.
The human-analogies some people make are rather unconvincing. I’d think physiologically cats are less diverse than humans are. In both species size translates to weight, force, reach.
There are outliers, but most house cats are still “fit” enough not to suffer massive disadvantages.
So it would be more a matter of size and stature than lifestyle. A Main Coon with their voluminous fur might enjoy a form of natural armor. But the same fur would exist if it was a street cat (bar any diseases).
And they also possess natural weapons that are not related to their grooming and lifestyle (much). If some jerk has their house cats declawed, maybe. But usually claw is claw and tooth is tooth.
What will probably be the most decisive factor, just as it is in humans, is aggression and killer instinct. That is where a street cat might be better conditioned. On the other hand, animals lean heavier on instinct and even the gentlest house cat can become vicious when exposed to the right stimulus.
tl;dr I am not sure